The Secret to Writing Comedy

Larry David

I came across this article in the New Yorker, which includes a look at how Larry David weaves his plots together for his great show, Curb Your Enthusiasm.

See: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/040119fa_fact?040119fa_fact

Referring to his tattered notebook:

He leafed through the notebook. “Most of the ideas stink,” he said. “But you’d be surprised. See, a lot of these I’ll use, not as a big story but like a little piece of filler. And then all of a sudden it somehow leads into something.”

When the time comes to begin writing the new season, David scans his notebook for possibilities. “He’ll go through the notebook and find three or four stories and extrapolate them to worst-case,” ... “He starts to weave them together. Sometimes you can brainstorm ideas with him—you can even pitch B stories to him. He’s used stories from Larry Charles and me. Cheryl got a story in there. And then he just sits down and sweats it out.”

There you go. That's the secret. Comedy writing is hard work.

Font Fanatics

I've finally uploaded to YouTube my first ever clip using Camtasia.

This is what can happen to you when you choose a silly font:



The 4 items I used to make this clip were:

• Techsmith's Camtasia software
• A Logitech Web Camera
• The Logitech face recognition software
• A couple of royalty free sound clips

I used the Web camera to video me typing away at the keyboard and I used Camtasia to capture the screen shots in Microsoft Word, plus do the video and audio editing.

Given the pain and suffering I saw other students go through during the short filmmaking course, I was really glad I could make my clip in a relatively short time with a minimum of fuss.

NEWS ITEM - iStockphoto Stocks Up on Video

By Nancy Davis Kho, Posted Sep 20, 2006

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but at iStockphoto.com, it's also worth between one and forty dollars. iStockphoto, a provider of royalty free stock photography, pioneered a micropayment model to bring affordable stock photographs to the masses and shook up the stock photo industry in the process. Now, following its acquisition by Getty Images earlier this year, iStockphoto is leveraging its parent company's expertise to add video clips and broaden the site's international appeal.

iStockphoto boasts that it was the first company to put the amateur photographer and customer in direct contact with stock photography. Photographers upload images to the site for free. Customers pay from $1 to $40 for an image, depending on its size, and the photographer is paid a commission instantly each time a customer downloads a photo. iStockphoto's royalty model means buyers can use photos multiple times and for multiple purposes.

The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, now hosts over one million images, contributed by 22,000 photographers around the world. Images are downloaded from www.iStockphoto.com at a rate of nearly one every three seconds. The iStockphoto member community is a loyal group, enhancing the site with user-generated content like image commentary and photography tips.

iStockphoto's success caught the attention of Getty Images, a market leader in traditional stock photography, and in February 2006, Getty purchased iStockphoto for $50 million. While some were concerned that iStockphoto would lose its democratic approach after the acquisition, Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto's VP of marketing, sees its affiliation with Getty as a substantial benefit to iStockphoto's members that will actually allow it to enhance its services. "Getty Images is the most experienced company in the stock industry, and their institutional knowledge just seeps out," he says.

According to Thompson, iStockphoto had been toying with the idea of adding video clips for customer download for some time, based on increasing customer demand for high quality video at an affordable price. "Before we launched, we were monitoring the availability of high-definition video cameras at a price that an amateur photographer could afford." He credits Getty with encouraging them to make the leap sooner rather later, and in July, iStockphoto began soliciting video clip submissions from its member base. The video collection launched in September, with prices starting at $5 for a 30 second clip.

Also in September, iStockphoto released a site upgrade that leverages Getty's indexing terminology to enhance usability for iStockphoto's international members, who comprise 40% of its user base. "Getty has taken ten years to perfect their controlled vocabulary, the tree structure that encompasses every possible keyword to describe an image. They have the ability to auto translate those terms into twelve languages besides English," Thompson says.

Now that same controlled vocabulary and auto-translation capability will be used on the iStockphoto site. Previously, photographers could only add the keyword terms describing their photos in English, which put non-English speaking photographers at a disadvantage. With the September release, photographers can also add keywords in any of twelve other languages, and global customers can search in those languages as well.

Additionally, the entire site is now translated into local languages for the French, German, and Spanish markets. In a new twist on user-generated content, Thompson says iStockphoto members from those countries participated in localizing the interface.

With the addition of video clips and localized search and user interfaces, iStockphoto continues to provide a new lens through which to see the stock photography industry.

(www.istockphoto.com)

Humor for a Specialized Audience

This spoof music video appeals to me, and to anyone who has an interest in stock, futures and currency trading. It's a good example of a bit of humor and creativity being applied to a normally dusty-dry topic. It's a lesson for all web content creators. The music video was produced by Michael O'Rorke of Columbia Business School's Follies.

Budgetng and Scheduling a Film Shoot

In this class Matthew talked about putting together a schedule for the shoot, no matter how small the production.

It was simply a table or spreadsheet that contained the following elements:
Rows that show the location and time with columns containing a description of the scene, cast required, wardrobe, art dept, audio & camera requirements. It was simple but comprehensive.

This is a fancy looking schedule with dazzling colors, but you can simply use a spreadsheet.

Matthew showed us an example from a current production of his and I was impressed by how utterly thorough it was. Nearly any question that a crew or cast member would have could be answered by looking at the schedule, e.g. what time do I need to be there and what should I bring, etc.

I could see how a schedule would be invaluable as a guide and FAQ for everyone involved.

We were also shown a sample short-film grant submission with all the items for the short-film costed out, this convinced me that shooting cheap video for the web for an interested audience was the way to go for me.

Matthew also mentioned that it's typical for there to be a 7 to 1 ratio of tape or video stock used for the estimated length of the production, e.g. 10 minute of video will take up approximately 70 minutes of video footage. This extra footage is largely used for extra takes at different angles so that there's a choice of material during the edit. This 'excess' should be factored into the cost of stock.

When it comes to using volunteers and friends on a flm shoot, Matthew also recommended that the producer/director provide the catering in recognition of the assistance that the volunteers were providing. It doesn't hurt to be generous and express gratitude this way (plus factor this into your budget!)

Video Camera Introduction

Canon XM2

In this class we were introduced to video cameras, using the Canon XM2 as an example.

The most interesting part was learning about white balance, which practically is about making sure that colors are consistent from one take to another. White balance is affected by video electronics and the prevailing color temperature of the illuminating light. So if the color temperature is different in a new take, then the color will look different on video. To ensure an even-color look between takes, then you need to set the white balance of the camera before shooting.

Here's a brief article about white balance.

Comedy Film Festival

I was looking at Diane Cilento's Web site Karnak Playhouse and there discovered a link to the Australian Over the Fence Comedy Film festival. This might be of interest to other students in my short filmmaking course.

They recieve submissions at the end of January. Here are the guidelines:

Guidelines for films submitted selection panel:
1 - any format; Hi 8 - S-VHS - Digital - 8mm - 35mm etc
2 - any length between 2 to 30 minutes
3 - any comic genre; black, slapstick, irreverent, romantic,political, subversive, absurd ... etc. And must have an excellent sense of humour.
4 - Prefer a 'product placements free zone' - like no smoking or featured product names - cool drinks etc (unless contexualized).